


Cold Comfort

by Warden_Click



Category: Food Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: And screams at him, Crying, I literally wrote this whenever I had insomnia, M/M, Mary pins down Pretzel, Snow, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, slight angst, this is barely edited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27891424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warden_Click/pseuds/Warden_Click
Summary: Pretzel has won these cat-and-mouse games many times, but just as he's about to become victorious once again, things take a turn for the strange.
Relationships: Bloody Mary/Pretzel (Food Fantasy)
Kudos: 13





	Cold Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the terrible summary. This was barely edited at all and came into being over the course of many insomnia-induced nights, so the quality is...yeah.

_ "Hold me, _ " Bloody Mary half pleaded, half demanded in a voice too tiny and helpless to mask any hidden intentions. Under ordinary circumstances, Pretzel would have and should have simply carried him back to his cell without a second thought. But to see the food soul curled in on himself, shivering and weak…

Pretzel sighed to himself as he relented and warily knelt down to Bloody Mary's level. Then, as though he was preparing to embrace a cactus, he slowly and awkwardly pulled him into a hug. He had expected Mary's body to be cold like always, but somehow that frigidness was even more bone-chilling than usual. The muffled sobs and cool tears Mary immediately buried into the priest's shoulder were another matter entirely. Of all the tricks and antics Mary loved to escape with throughout the years, crying into Pretzel like a hurt child had  _ never _ been on that list. "What happened…?" Pretzel asked quietly. He doubted Mary would actually answer him and so wasn't surprised when the latter simply continued to sob into him.

Despite the surrealism of everything, Pretzel knew that they couldn't just stay out here like this. Not only was it just plain freezing in these woods, but the sun would be setting soon, plunging the temperature even further and practically inviting fallen angels to come attack them. Normally, fighting attackers wouldn't be an issue for him, but doing so would give Mary an easy opportunity to slip away. While the nearest church was much too far away to reach before nightfall, Pretzel recalled passing by an inn while searching for Mary. Having decided on a course of action, he began to make his way to that inn.

Or he would have, if Mary weren't still clinging to him like a lifeline. After internally chastising himself for forgetting about  _ Bloody Mary _ of all people, Pretzel carefully scooped him into an awkward bridal carry before beginning the trek to the inn. Mary's reaction was immediate. "No!" He shouted between sobs as he struggled in vain to break free. "I'm not...I'm not going back there!"

At first, Pretzel didn't bother to respond to Mary's protests. It was only when he felt sharp teeth dig into the space between his shoulder and neck that he finally decided to respond. “We’re going to an inn, Bloody Mary. The church is much too far away from here.”  Almost like magic, Mary’s struggles ceased. If Pretzel were to look at his face, he would have seen an expression of confusion mixed with relief. He could still feel the cold tears seep into the fabric of his garb, but at least the sobs died down quite a bit.  _ He shouldn’t be crying at all _ , a tiny voice in the back of his head whispered, but Pretzel pushed it down as best he could.

The rest of the journey through the snow was largely forgettable outside of Mary being oddly well-behaved. By the time the small, homely in came into sight, the last rays of sunlight had begun to fade away and Mary’s shivering only intensified. “We’re almost there.” Pretzel murmured absent-mindedly, the unusual warmth in his voice confusing the other food soul.  Before entering the inn, Pretzel set Mary down on his feet. As much as he was accustomed to simply carrying Mary into the nearest church, this was  _ not _ a church and he didn’t want to give the innkeeper on the other side the wrong idea. Besides, with the temperature dropping like this, he doubted Mary would be eager to run off into the night.

As the two food souls entered the inn, they were hit with a wave of warmth from the nearby fireplace. The inn was decorated very simply, but it was by no means spartan or plain. Across the room, a brunette young woman sat comfortably behind a wooden counter. Seemingly absorbed by the book she was reading, she didn’t appear to notice Pretzel or Mary.  Before Pretzel could say anything, Mary loudly cleared his throat. Almost immediately, the innkeeper dropped her book with a startled “Oh!” As she spun around to get a good look at the two guests. “Sorry! I didn’t see you there!” She apologized with a smile. “How can I help you this evening, sirs?”

“Oh, it’s just fine. We’re just looking for two-” Mary started.

“...One room.” Pretzel finished. He may have been giving Mary more leeway than usual, but he wasn’t going to leave him to his own devices with a whole room. Besides, he'd only brought enough money with him to pay for a single room.

The innkeeper raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Really? Just one room?” When Pretzel nodded to confirm (much to Mary’s chagrin), she simply shrugged. “Alright, but we don’t exactly have any spare mattresses lying around, so you’ll have to make do. Your room will be the second one down from the right, by the way.”  Once she handed the key to Pretzel, they thanked her and made their way to their room for the night. Like the entrance, the room was simply decorated, but very cozy. There was a small fireplace on the far side of the room, and a large window to watch the snowfall outside from. Really, the room only had one major flaw…

...There was only one bed.

It wasn’t even a large or even medium-sized bed, either. No, it could only comfortably fit one person at most. The moment their eyes fell upon it, Mary gave Pretzel a smug grin. “So, Father, how do you suppose we solve this problem? Maybe if we sleep very,  _ very _ close to each other, we’ll both fit on the bed.” He teased, giggling when the tips of Pretzel’s ears turned red.

“There’s a far simpler solution than that,” Pretzel replied. Having said that, he simply laid down on the square rug in the middle of the room. Mary laughed, but as Pretzel continued to lay there, it began to sink in that the priest was actually serious. “You’re not...you’re not  _ seriously _ going to sleep on the floor, are you?” Pretzel simply shrugged in response.

Mary moved to sit on the bed, quiet as a mouse until he suddenly spoke again. “You haven’t been acting like yourself at all, Pretzel.”

At the sound of his name on Mary’s lips, Pretzel got up into a sitting position. “How so?”

“You’ve been far,  _ far _ too kind.”

Pretzel tried to respond to that, but how could he? Was there even a proper response to such an observation? He was well aware that he’d been...less than gentle with Mary in the past, but to have it pointed out so bluntly stung more than he thought it would. “You...haven’t been yourself, either.” He finally said, lost in thought.

“Oh? And What do you mean by that?”

“Well, you begged me to hold you, earlier, and you were sobbing all the way to the inn.”

“I can’t believe you actually went and held me. I thought you  _ hated _ me.” Mary laughed coldly, his tone laced with a trace of danger.

Pretzel tried to choose his next words carefully. Yes, Mary was a constant thorn in his side and as dangerous as he was sinful, but to say he  _ hated _ him was quite strong. “I don’t hate you. What made you think that?”

He didn’t choose his words carefully enough. Suddenly, Mary lunged out of bed and pinned Pretzel to the floor. “Oh, I don’t know,  _ Father. _ ” He sneered. “Maybe it has something to do  **_with the way you’ve treated me ever since you started hounding me?!_ ** ”

Pretzel tried to pry Mary off of him, but the other food soul’s hands were planted firmly over his arms.  “If you didn’t hate me, then why would you chase me to the ends of Tierra and back?!” Mary was screaming in his face now. “If you didn’t hate me, then why would you torture me every night with that damned burning holy water?!”  Mary’s screams verged on overwhelming, but his words still pierced Pretzel’s heart. Was  _ this _ truly the result of all Pretzel’s efforts to purify him? Whatever it was, it certainly couldn’t be called anything beneficial. Upon this realization, Pretzel stopped attempting to escape while Mary continued his tearful tirade.  “If you didn’t hate me, then why would you...why would you...” Mary’s grip loosened as his tears flowed more freely, giving Pretzel the perfect opportunity to unpin himself. Rather than simply escape, though, he pulled Mary into a hug as the latter started sobbing again.

They sat on the rug like that for several long moments, neither of them saying anything. Eventually, as Mary's sobs fell silent and his breathing evened out, Pretzel realized the man in his arms had essentially cried himself to sleep. Carefully and without waking him, Pretzel lifted Mary up and tucked him into bed. Then, without further ado, he laid back down on the rug and attempted to fall asleep. It was far from comfortable, but he'd slept in far worse conditions.

* * *

At some point, whilst shifting between dreams and nightmares, Mary groggily awoke to find himself in bed. By now, the room was far darker than before, the fire in the fireplace having long died out. Thanks to the moonlight filtering in through the window, though, he could still make out his surroundings.  At first, he couldn't see Pretzel from where he was laying, but once he sat up, he found the priest lying asleep on the floor. "Did he really…?" Mary mumbled to himself quietly, bewildered. He'd assumed that Pretzel would at least grab himself a pillow to rest his head on, but he didn't even do that. No, his stupid captor was just sleeping on the floor like some pitiful wretch.

For a brief moment, Mary thought of taking advantage of this opportunity. After all, the window was only a few steps away. If he could just open it quietly enough, he could slip away into the night without Pretzel so much as stirring in his sleep. Just as he was going to do just that, though, another thought popped into his head.  If he fled now, he was going to have to navigate through the dark snowfield all on his own, braving the cold and putting him at the mercy of the fallen angels who lived there. Those little monsters had been stealthy enough while there was light out. If Pretzel hadn't inadvertently chased off the one that Mary had fallen victim to, earlier, it likely would have made short work of him while he was immobilized by the sheer sorrow it forced him to feel.

Shuddering, Mary looked about the room to try and push those thoughts away. Inevitably, his eyes fell on Pretzel's sleeping form once again. Usually, Mary had very little sympathy for this persistent thorn in his side, but as he watched him sleep, Pretzel's discomfort became increasingly apparent. He was curled up on his side in a way eerily similar to how Mary himself would attempt to sleep in the cold, dim cell he'd always find himself in after being caught. It was hard to tell if the priest was actually cold or not, but the way he would occasionally shudder in his sleep reminded Mary of coldness. 

Really, Pretzel looked pitiful in his current state and Mary soon found himself looking through the blankets. No way in hell was he going to relinquish the quilt or the soft blanket under it, but maybe he could part with the thin white sheet underneath that one.  _ I can't believe I'm doing this _ , Mary thought to himself as he fished the sheet out and draped it over Pretzel. Almost immediately, the blond food soul unconsciously wrapped it around himself.

The sight put a strange, almost warm feeling in Mary's chest, but he ignored it and tried to fall back asleep. Tomorrow was going to be an unusual day and he would need all the energy he could get.


End file.
